Most companies in trouble restructure, scale down, very few are able to reinvent themselves. But it can be done, writes IMD-professor Bill Fischer in Forbes. Soon a book on the Chinese company Haier, one of the companies who reinvented itself, co-authored by Bill Fischer, will appear.
Bill Fischer:
When done right – here, I’m thinking IBM, Haier, Telekom Malaysia – the results can be impressive. The organization is given an entirely new start, and rather than being a confused incumbent under attack, they can be granted additional life as a result of taking bold and daring choices. But, if you are Kodak, RIM or Nokia, for example, you find yourself a victim of major disruption from outside, as your key products and services are being preempted by unexpected, and imaginative market entrants [namely, Apple, Samsung and Google] who have completely changed the products and business models that you had built your long-term success on, and the industry and value-chains that you were a part of, removing the very bedrocks of your past success upon which you had most likely planned your future. If you are SONY, Dell, or Yahoo, on the other hand, your problems are more likely internal: your own organization, or the constraints you have placed on it, have let you down and you lack the visionary leadership that brought you success not so long ago. With either success or failure, however, the outcome is more the result of leadership than anything else.
Bill Fischer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
Telecom giant Huawei is still one of the Chinese companies that has to reinvent itself, concluded the China Weekly Hangout on October 18, 2012. Present are David Wolf, who wrote a book on Huawei and China veteran Andrew Hupert. Moderation by Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.
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